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"Your program isn't about what it does, but about what things are" "In the Haskell code, the data flows from right to left, instead of from top to bottom" I f

"Your program isn't about what it does, but about what things are" "In the Haskell code, the data flows from right to left, instead of from top to bottom" I find this article vague, imprecise, forced. It's like those "lets do OOP for the sake of doing OOP" articles, just swap OOP to functional programming.

loup-vaillant 14y ago
The statements you cite are trivial, but I believe they are quite precise. Can you tell me more about how my article spurs a feeling of vagueness? I might be able to fix it. Also, I didn't mean to advocate FP, at least not there. I have written it for the poor C++/Java programmer who is forced to decipher an OCaml script written by a jerk who since left the company. (Disclaimer: I would be the jerk.)
- friendly_chap 14y ago
  > Can you tell me more about how my article spurs a feeling of vagueness? Not just you, approx. 90% of the software industry suffers from it (big IMHO here of course). I think too much emphasis is placed on paradigms and magic approaches, instead of talking about things are. Something like this: "Is C++ a big pile of mess? Yes. Is Haskell a much better designed language, even if its implementations are slower because the higher level of abstraction clashes with the underlying hardware currently in use? Yep." Also, what you are trying to describe with all those top-bottom-left-right and similar analogies is the fact that in FP languages you mostly work with expressions, while the building blocks of imperative languages are statements. I don't really have the time to continue here maybe I will write a blog post myself too :).
- brokenparser 14y ago
  This article did it for me, it was originally written in 1989: http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dat/miranda/whyfp90.pdf http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dat/miranda/whyfp90.pd...
- cust_support 14y ago
  Please stop using square or sqrt or recur/iter as examples of functional programming. It's as bad as every "Hello World" println from new imperative languages that seem to pop up everyday. And please stop suggesting that imperative programmers are unable or unwilling to fully grasp the functional mindset. It's really unnecessary. This is akin to every claim that new technology is "scary". Disruption is not frightening, it's just unwelcome. Give the imperative programmers a little slack; they're trying to solve problems just like everyone else. It's not their fault you don't enjoy reading epic poems written in iambic pentameter.

loup-vaillant 14y ago

The statements you cite are trivial, but I believe they are quite precise. Can you tell me more about how my article spurs a feeling of vagueness? I might be able to fix it. Also, I didn't mean to advocate FP, at least not there. I have written it for the poor C++/Java programmer who is forced to decipher an OCaml script written by a jerk who since left the company. (Disclaimer: I would be the jerk.)

friendly_chap 14y ago
> Can you tell me more about how my article spurs a feeling of vagueness? Not just you, approx. 90% of the software industry suffers from it (big IMHO here of course). I think too much emphasis is placed on paradigms and magic approaches, instead of talking about things are. Something like this: "Is C++ a big pile of mess? Yes. Is Haskell a much better designed language, even if its implementations are slower because the higher level of abstraction clashes with the underlying hardware currently in use? Yep." Also, what you are trying to describe with all those top-bottom-left-right and similar analogies is the fact that in FP languages you mostly work with expressions, while the building blocks of imperative languages are statements. I don't really have the time to continue here maybe I will write a blog post myself too :).
brokenparser 14y ago
This article did it for me, it was originally written in 1989: http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dat/miranda/whyfp90.pdf http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dat/miranda/whyfp90.pd...
cust_support 14y ago
Please stop using square or sqrt or recur/iter as examples of functional programming. It's as bad as every "Hello World" println from new imperative languages that seem to pop up everyday. And please stop suggesting that imperative programmers are unable or unwilling to fully grasp the functional mindset. It's really unnecessary. This is akin to every claim that new technology is "scary". Disruption is not frightening, it's just unwelcome. Give the imperative programmers a little slack; they're trying to solve problems just like everyone else. It's not their fault you don't enjoy reading epic poems written in iambic pentameter.